


Moving On

by afteriwake



Series: In So Few Words [60]
Category: CSI: NY
Genre: Best Friends, Conversations, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Male-Female Friendship, Nervous Stella, POV Mac Taylor, Psychology, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-19
Updated: 2012-09-19
Packaged: 2017-11-14 15:29:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/516835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Psychology sheds some new light on their relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving On

__

You gotta make your own kind of music  
Sing your own special song  
Make your own kind music  
Even if nobody else sings along  
Mama Cass Elliot, "Make Your Own Kind Of Music"  


She was humming to herself when he popped his head into her office. She had her head bent down and she was writing in a notebook, with another book nearby that she kept looking at. The tune wasn't anything he recognized but the scene was familiar, and he stood there silent and entranced. He'd done this so often he was sure she'd have noticed by now. But if she had, she never said anything about it, something he was both grateful for and slightly saddened by.

Finally he cleared his throat. She looked up and smiled at him, pulling her attention away from the notebook she'd been writing in. "What's up?"

"Double homicide down in Central Park," he said. "Flack and Angell are busy so it's being contained by the rookie."

She winced. "Then let's hurry. Macintosh is not that good at crowd control."

"I know. Angell's heading down there as soon as she can." He watched Stella stand up and put her jacket on is a sequence of fluid moments. That was another thing he liked to watch her do.

"I'll drive," she said, her hand out and waiting. With a fake show of reluctance, he handed over his keys and she grinned at him, that heart-stopping grin. He'd fallen for her years ago, and yet now that he acknowledged it, there wasn't really anything he could _do_ about it. So for now, he just followed her to the car and prepared himself to focus on the crime scene that lay waiting for them.

\---

"I mean, you get the concept of nature vs. nurture, right?" Stella said. They were stuck in afternoon traffic and she had been talking about the new psychology textbook she'd been reading. Mac had encouraged her to take a class for years and she's found one that he'd managed to work her schedule around be taking her off the night shift. And everyone else was helping her out, too.

"Yes. It's the theory that some things are ingrained in a person and some things are learned."

"Exactly. Like...with us. As long as we've known each other, there's things that have come naturally and things we've had to learn. The things that come naturally...your patience, my skills at observation, things like that...they were things that I think we were born with. They just happen to work well together. Like we do. And then there's other things we've both had to learn that we _also_ use to work well together."

"Like what?" Mac asked, a smile creeping up the side of his mouth.

"Well, I learned tactfulness. You learned to loosen up. I learned to calm down. You learned never to piss me off."

He laughed, then turned his head and looked at the trees on the street. It was fall, and the leaves were turning that golden color that reminded him of the times he'd go out to the country with Claire. It surprised him he could think about her now and not feel pain anymore. Surprised him, but made him happier, too. "Yes, I do think we've learned to work together because of that last part."

"Exactly." She nodded, still concentrating on the road. Then she stayed silent for a while. "Hey, Mac?" she asked finally.

"Yes?"

"Are we good together?"

The phrasing of her question got his attention. She didn't ask if they worked well together; that had already been established in their previous question. "Yes," he said slowly. "We are good together."

"And...are we good for each other?" She pulled into Central Park and stopped the car. She looked out the window at the statues while he looked at her. He knew she was counting the statues as he thought her way trough something, and he started to wonder how they'd gotten to this point.

"Yes, we are."

She finally turned to him, then shut her eyes and took a deep breath. "I...I know you run the labs, and that technically I work under you, so if this is a bad idea forget I said anything, but...do you want to..." She stopped and opened up an eye. "Go on a date?" she finished hopefully but with trepidation.

He thought for a moment, and then nodded slowly. If there was anyone he wanted to move on in his life with, it was her. "I would like that very much."

She grinned and opened up both her eyes. "I'm really glad about that."

"I am too."

"So...ready to get to work?"

He nodded and she got out of the car. He took a moment to thank whatever guardian angel he had for this second chance before opening the door to get his kit out of the back.


End file.
